Adam Szabo JP6K v1.7

JP6K is a synth dedicated to emulating the famous Super Saw sound, first found in the Roland JP-8000 synthesizer in 1997. It aims to capture the essence of the sound and the behavior of the original oscillator. Even after a decade, the Super Saw is still sought after by people all around the world, and is a crucial part of such music genres like Trance.

There are several factors that make the Super Saw in the JP6K different than other synths that provide a similar sound. The original Super Saw from Roland was aliasing, thus creating a bright and “airy” sound. To prevent the sound from sounding harsh below the fundamental harmonic, a high pass filter was possibly used to remove the unwanted frequencies. The JP6K uses the same design to achieve that special oscillator waveform giving it a unique tone.

Another important aspect of the classic Super Saw, was its special detune curve. It was non-linear, which gave the user greater control over the detune amount. Even when the detune control was half way, the spread of the detune was small, which made it possible to make very smooth sounding pads. The curve then gradually increased, and at higher values, the detune rapidly spread out to maximum. This unique curve is accurately modelled in JP6K, making it nearly identical to the detune in the hardware.

The JP6K also emulates other features from the JP-8000 like the filters, key tracking and the EQ, to give it an even more authentic way to shape the Super Saw sound. The synth has been optimised to use minimal amount of CPU, so it is possible to use multiple instances.

Key features:

• 32 voice polyphony
• Two Super Saw oscillators, an upper and lower with panning
• 1 noise oscillator
• Three filter modes: low pass, band pass and high pass with -12 & -24 dB/Oct
• Three independent LFOs controlling the filter, amp and pitch
• Pitch envelope
• Glide (Portamento) / MIDI pitch-wheel support
• Built in delay and EQ
• 114 presets, which includes presets from CFA-Sound, MASCHINENBAUERMUSIC, Mikey O’Hare and Grzegorz